Here's Negan
Here's Negan is a stand-alone volume of Image Comics' The Walking Dead, featuring the backstory of Negan. The volume was initially separated and released into chapters consisting of four pages each, published monthly from April 27, 2016. The final completed version was planned to contain a total of 48 pages, released in individual chapters and to play out over the course of a year. On December 7, 2016 in the Letter Hacks of Issue 161, it was announced that 'Here's Negan' would be extended to a total of 16 issues.http://undeadwalking.com/2016/12/26/heres-negan-walking-dead/ A hardcover version, containing all chapters of the volume, was released on October 4, 2017 to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the comic series.http://www.thewalkingdead.com/negans-backstory-to-be-collected-in-hardcover/ Plot Synopsis Chapter 1 Negan is in his garage where he beats a young boy at a game of ping-pong. Gloating over his victory, he challenges the boy's friends as they stand in shock. The defeated teen quickly runs away, humiliated as the others chase after him, apologizing for him being 'kind of a pussy'. Negan sits back into his recliner expecting consequences when his wife walks in. The woman approaches Negan and berates him for cussing out the teens; their parents having just called her. She explains that he is seen as a role model and needs to act better or else he'll be fired from the school where he works as a coach. Negan explains he only cussed out one of them and that he was just kidding, he elaborates that he's just trying to be the cool teacher and that they won't respect him if he acts like he has a 'stick up his butt'. He points out that she should hear some of the stuff that they say. The woman tries to rebuttal this, but suddenly collapses to the pavement, Negan rushes to her side. Chapter 2 Negan hugs his wife on the floor and makes sure she is okay. A man walks up and Negan yells at him to call 9-1-1. Later at a hospital, a doctor arrives to deliver horrible news, to Negan and his wife. Later, while in the bed with another woman, Negan becomes distraught. When his lover asks what's wrong, Negan reveals his wife has been diagnosed with cancer. Chapter 3 After being told by Negan that his wife has cancer, Negan's mistress quickly becomes angry at him, understanding that Negan told her this to make her feel guilty, and ends the relationship. Later, Negan reveals to his wife that he ended his extra marital affair. Negan's wife quickly becomes angry and while Negan explains that he ended his affair because he only loves her, she expresses distress over the fact Negan chose to stay with her, "the sick one", over a perfectly healthy woman. Time passes, and the wife's state quickly worsens. Negan is then seen at a hospital bed, his wife now (presumably) living with the help of machines. As Negan is confessing his love and regrets to his wife, an alarmed nurse comes in and exclaims that the hospital has been evacuated, the area isn't safe and he must come with him. After refusing to leave with the nurse, because his wife cannot leave in her condition, Negan is told to save himself. He then looks at the window and is dumbfounded to see the chaos below him, as a car burns and a doctor flees from the dead. The apocalypse has started. Chapter 4 Negan continues to watch the outbreak unfold from the window of the hospital, and realizes that there's something wrong with the "people" on the street. He hears a sound and turns to the door to see a young man running past, and is instructed to run as well. He quickly shuts the door and blocks it with a cabinet. Negan then tells his unconscious wife that it's better that she's sleeping through the strange events unfolding and that everything should be normal once she wakes up, right before breaking down. He then hears a loud sound coming from the streets, prompting him to look down the window once more, only to see the situation has gravely worsened, with a larger number of walkers destroying a car, and bodies scattered all around. He then hears a sound behind of him, made by none other than his wife, who had died, and is now turned. She falls from her bed, and Negan then calls her by her name: Lucille. Chapter 5 Negan rushes up to Lucille to check on her till she looks up. Her eyes are glazed over, her nose broken from the fall. She reaches out and growls at him causing him to fall back in shock. After a moment of disbelief, he tries to talk her back but to no avail. Teary eyed- he plants a kiss on her forehead as her weak body lays flat on the floor. He walks away and leaves the room to find a survivor fending off an attack by two walkers. The survivor calls out for help as Negan watches. Chapter 6 The walkers grab the boy as Negan rushes in to help. He fends off the two infected with a fire extinguisher and is horrified at having to kill them. The boy thanks a shocked Negan for saving his life and offers him help. Negan asks the boy if he could put down Lucille for him and the boy agrees. After putting Lucille down, the boy returns and the two begin to leave the hospital. Chapter 7 Negan and the boy leave the hospital, and the boy says he needs to get home. Negan stops the boy and, argues that his house is probably too far to go on foot and offers him a ride home. As they make their way to the parking lot, they begin to bond, with the boy being quick to notice Negan's rude behavior. Negan says that he "traded in nice for funny a long time ago". He then goes on to explain to the boy that life is just a constant hunt for sex right before he stops himself. He asks the boy his age and says that his thirteen. The boy then asks if Negan's fine, because of his wife dying minutes before, and his weird behavior in light of that event. Negan reluctantly says he is. Arriving in the parking lot, Negan starts giving life advice to the kid, saying that is best for him if he waits to lose virginity using Moby Dick as an analogy. The analogy makes the boy smile, and he talks about a girl he likes and how he thinks that if he could protect her from the events unfolding, she'll like him. The conversation is cut short by a walker that emerges suddenly and kills the boy. Negan watches angrily. Chapter 8 After the boy's death, Negan drives home. He is seen boarding up windows, and alone on the road afterwards. Time passes and a bearded Negan is seen stealing gas from a group of men. After clumsily threatening to beat them down, Negan offers to join them and use a car that he found with the keys still in it but with no gas. Negan notices a baseball bat that belongs to one of the men and remarks that it is nice. Afterwards, Negan and the men walk away from the car, having discovered that lack of gas wasn't the car's only problem, and Negan defends himself, saying that he knows "fuck all" about cars, and he comitted an honest mistake. Time passes and Negan is seen getting along with the group he found, bragging about walker kills and discovering places with beds for them to sleep. However, Negan lies about his past, and says that he didn't lose anyone. At a fireplace, Negan is crudely talking about how he doesn't need overcompensation, believing his penis to be the mightiest. He is completely clueless about the herd of walkers closing in on him and his group. Chapter 9 Negan notices the herd and begins to fight the walkers. After taking one down with a rifle and dropping another into the fire, he turns around to the group to scold them for not warning him about the herd only to find them all being eaten by the dead. Calmly acknowledging the death of his newfound friends, he picks up Paul's bat and kills the rest of the walkers nearby. He turns around and begins to walk away. However, he comes back for the bloodied bat, strapping it to his backpack before leaving. Chapter 10 Negan is walking alone in an abandoned neighborhood and ends up killing a couple walkers. He is then seen washing off his bloody bat when suddenly he encounters a man and a woman who were wondering if Negan had a place to stay. The two people are then shown to be walking with Negan on the road and the man mentions a sixteen year old girl named Annabelle who was running alongside them but was killed by walkers and was forced to be left behind. The man is then shown to be getting killed by walkers while Negan kills some in the background. Negan and a woman are then seen walking in the forest and she recalls how her husband, Dewey, had a high fever and was weak when the walkers came in and killed him. She explains how she thought the room was secure and how she barely got out alive herself. The woman is then seen being torn apart by walkers and with Negan trying to pull her away from them. More time then passes as Negan sits by a campfire with two other strangers who recall how their father told them that he would hold off the walkers for them and they left him thinking he would find another way out but say how they can still hear his screams. One of the strangers is then shown to be getting bit from behind while the other one watches in shock. Negan and the remaining girl are shown to be by a Walmart when she reveals to Negan that she was bit. Negan gets extremely upset with her about how she let her father and brother die and that because of all her trouble that she was going to die. Negan then explains how he is sick to death of all the people he's encountered as all they ever do is die, Negan then leaves her to die to her wound. He is then seen hunting in the woods and cooking his meal over a fire when suddenly he hears something. A man comes out saying that he couldn't have eaten the meal by himself and he tells Negan that his name is Dwight and that it looked like he could use some company. Chapter 11 Negan asks Dwight if his weapon is a crossbow, and asks to hold it while they eat. Negan further asks about the crossbow's functionality, and the reusability of its bolts (which Negan incorrectly calls arrows). They leave, and Negan asks if Dwight is taking him to a trap, threatening to split his skull in half if he crosses him. Dwight assures him that there isn't a trap waiting, and that he's taking Negan to a camp where he'll be safer. Dwight attempts to introduce Negan to the camp's inhabitants, but Negan asks him not to bother, saying that if they last more than a few days he'll learn their names, and that there's no point in doing that otherwise. A woman sarcastically notices that Negan is "friendly", and advises Dwight to spend more time with strangers before taking them to camp. Dwight says that Negan seemed lonely, and that he felt sorry for him. Negan then apologizes, and shows his appreciation of the camp's inhabitants taking him in. The woman - stating her name to be Sherry - says that there's no problem since everyone saw people dying and that even she doesn't remember the names of a couple who travelled with her before and have since died. Time passes, winter arrives, and the camp finds a hotel, which as Negan remarks to Sherry, could help them get through the cold season. At a later time, the group is escaping a place full of walkers, with Negan leading them out. Negan then exclaims that they can survive if they all work together. "Nobody has to die today!", he says before commanding them to fight. Chapter 12 The group manages to escape the overrun hotel, but Negan is nowhere to be seen. He is shown struggling with a large number of walkers on his way out and barely escapes them. The group then opens fire on the dead. After they've gotten rid of the walkers, Tara asks Negan if they should clean the place out and stay, but Negan says that they'll find a better place, reassuring his leadership and asking the group to follow him. Dwight, however, looks concerned. Chapter 13 Scouting for a new place to settle, Negan wants to distance the group from the hotel they recently fled. Later, Dwight and Sherry have a discussion: Dwight feels his position as leader of the group has been usurped by Negan, but Sherry argues that no such thing as a leader exists, and that when a safe path is pointed out, they take it regardless of who suggests it. Time passes, and no safe place is found yet. As the weather gets colder, Negan tells the group to grab extra layers of clothing, without any complaints, prioritizing "warmth over style". "Unless you find something with both...", he says, as he eyes a leather jacket... Outside, Dwight asks Negan about what he used to do before the outbreak. Labeling himself as a "bad motherfucker", Negan goes on to explain his former career as gym teacher, and that the new group he found is growing on him, and he doesn't want to see any of them get killed. Just as Dwight asks if they should spend the night in the store, Negan greets a group of strangers, and joyfully invites them to come in, and says that there's plenty of supply for all of them. The leader of the strange group pulls his gun and points it at Negan. Negan says that they should talk, since they aren't dead, but the man asks how can they trust him. Negan's cheery persona quickly drops, and he states that his people have guns too, but they don't point it at living people. The man then states he likes Negan, and asks him where's he headed to. Later, Negan, now with a bigger group, wonders if they should return and clean the hotel or search for a new place. Negan then offers his jacket to a shivering woman, as the man from the other group offers him the woman, telling Negan to let him know if he "wants to try the merchandise", and that it's a whole new world where anything goes. Negan is visibly angered. Chapter 14 Negan asks the man what exactly did he mean by his last comment. When the man confirms his offer, Negan goes on to explain that he knows what it's like to have loved someone, and that people should love each other more now that they rely on each other. He says that if a person is willing to do "that" to a woman, they're closer to walkers than he'd like. He then finishes his lecture saying that whatever the men in the new group were doing stops or they part ways. The man does not take Negan's stance on rape lightly, and says he won't tell them what to do with their women, then pushes him in the barbed wire surrounding the camp. Negan manages to untangle himself from the barbed wire, grabs his bat, and strikes the man in the face with it. The shocked rest of the group watches the events unfolding. As Negan beats the man down, he warns other members of his group to stand back or they'll be next. The man's skull is heavily destroyed, with an eyeball popping out of its socket, and receives yet another strike from Negan's bat. Negan then tells the horrified group that what they witnessed may have been "startling" and that he may have gotten carried away, but it couldn't be helped. Negan asks if they are scared. If they are scared of him. If they are scared from dying. After taking back his coat, he reassures the group. They should be scared. Chapter 15 Negan says the group isn't processing the recent events when he stops himself for a minute. He goes to the barbed wire fencing, and takes some of the wire. Negan tells the group to stay still and orders Dwight to take care of them. Kneeling by the bonfire, Negan quietly starts doubting his actions but gets a hold of himself, while cleaning the baseball bat. He wraps the bat in the barbed wire he took. His work completed, Negan goes back to the group. Acknowledging the confusion and fear brought to the group by his actions, Negan introduces them to the newly created weapon of his that he now calls "Lucille". Chapter 16 Negan begins to explain how much his late wife Lucille meant to him and how unappreciative he was for having her. He says how after she had died at the start of the outbreak he was surrounded by the dead and survivors, who all eventually died due to being weak and scared. He says that he learned something after watching people die from being weak, scared and sad, while he felt nothing for them or himself. He says he didn't feel scared or sad but he did feel angry, furious at times, but for the most part he felt nothing. He then realized why: it was Lucille. He states that she "put him in a bubble where nothing got to him" and helped him survive. He then presents an idea, an alternative to watching the people of the group die. He'll let Lucille protect them as well, this time referring to the recently crafted barbed wire bat. He promises that if they stand with him, anyone who tries to get in the way will end up like the recently murdered leader from the new group. He says that the new group can fight back but they won't win. Negan proposes they consolidate supplies, protect each other and make it all work but makes it clear: they work for his group now. Negan proclaims his group are the newcomers' "saviors". One man steps up and asks if Negan's crazy to think they'll join him after he killed the leader of their group. Amidst a foul-mouthed threat, Negan states that he might not be accustomed to take orders from anyone but things are different now for one reason: "Here's Negan!". Credits *Negan *Josh *Lucille *Jeremy *Paul *Dwight *Sherry *Amber *Angela *Tory *Martin *Georgie *Tara *John *Rich *Sandra *The Saviors *Annabelle (Mentioned) *Dewey (Mentioned) *Unnamed survivors Deaths *Lucille (Alive and Zombified) *Jeremy *Paul *Annabelle (Confirmed Fate) *Dewey (Confirmed Fate) *Old Man (Alive, Off-Panel) *Survivor *Husband *Female Survivor *Brother *Sister (Alive) *2 unnamed survivors *A camp leader Trivia *First appearance of Angela. *First appearance of Tory. *First appearance of Martin. *First appearance of Georgie. *First appearance of John. *First appearance of Rich. *First appearance of Sandra. *First appearance of Josh. *First (and last) appearance of Lucille. *First (and last) appearance of Jeremy. *First (and last) appearance of Paul. References Category:Here's Negan Category:Media and Merchandise